Martha Ballard

I want you to know her name. I want you to tell your friends. I hope that you too are astonished by her life.

I want the world to remember that small acts, done in love, matter every bit as much as the ones that make the newspaper and the history books.

- Ariel Lawhon, Afterword to The Frozen River

Martha Ballard Site Visits

These videos were shot in January 2023 at sites associated with Martha Ballard and featured in the novel The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon

Part 1: Small Acts, Done in Love

The first is a series of videos visiting locations associated with Martha Ballard and the novel The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon. Alit of the background on Martha was provided by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich in The Midwife’s Tale.

Part 2: The Epidemic

In the cemetery in Oxford, Massachusetts where members of Martha Ballard’s family are buried. Somewhere nearby Martha buried 3 of her children in one summer due to a diphtheria epidemic.

 

Part 3: The Body

Part 3: The Body

The novel, The Frozen River, begins with a body getting stuck in the ice forming on the river. This is where that occurred in the novel and where Martha Ballard’s son got frozen in while rafting lumber down the river (both in the novel and real life).

 

Part 4: Ballard’s Mill

This is the location of Ballard's Mill where much of the action in "The Frozen River" takes place.

 

Part 5: Mill Creek Bridge

 

Part 6: The Ballard’s home 1791-1799

 

Part 7: The Ballard Farm, 1799 onwards

 

Part 8: Pollard’s Tavern and Dr Coleman’s Store

 

Part 10: Fort Halifax

 

Part 11: Fort Western

 

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